Founded as an educational establishment in 1519, then as the Collège de la Trinité, taken over by the members of the Confrérie de la Trinité in 1524, it was run for almost two centuries by the Jesuits, who enlarged it, built chapels and diversified the teaching (philosophy, then mathematics, geometry, astronomy, art and theatre).
Ecole Centrale under the Convention, it was one of the first “lycées” created under the Consulate by a decree of 24 Vendémiaire, year XI (16 October 1802) in application of the law of 11 Floréal, year X (1 May 1802).
“Lycée impérial” under the Empire, “Collège royal” under the Restoration and the July
Monarchy, it became the Lycée de Lyon after the 1848 revolution and was named in 1888 after André Marie AMPERE, the scholar and philosopher who taught there at the turn of the century.
Under the decentralisation laws, it is now a regional polyvalent secondary school.